Archives

In this section we will look at the Space Marine Troop choices and their tactics.

With the Space Marine army it looks like you are short changed when it comes to troop choices. Most Space Marine Chapters have two Space Marine troop choices, the Tactical units, and the Scout units. Where as if you are taking a Black Templars army then this drops down two just one option, the Black Templars tactical unit.

Is it a problem that there are so few options? In my mind there is not. The reason for this is that the Tactical Squad is tactical! Tactical means that they can adapt to just about any situation. You can read all about the weapon options and the best way to tool up your squads to beat any foe!

Space Marine Tactical Squad Tactics

A Warhammer 40k Space Marine Tactical squad

The Space Marine Tactical Squad is the basic troop of the Space Marine army. It is made up of 5 to 10 Space Marines. Ten Space Marines is the optimal number as this allows you to have heavy and special weapons in the squad, and allows you to use the ‘Combat Squads’ special rule.

The 2015 Space Marine Codex has been released. For the Space Marine Troop units this means greater access to Gravgun special weapons and Gravcannon heavy weapons.

Wargear

Space Marine Tactical Squad come with power armour, frag & krak grenades, bolt pistol and a bolt gun as standard. You do not have to pay any extra points to get these options. This is one way that the new Codex Space Marines makes life easier, and the Space Marines a few points cheaper than in the previous Codex’s

Space Marine Boltgun

The Boltgun (or bolter) is a good standard weapon. It has a 24″ range strength 4 and AP5. This means that a standard marine can take down most tanks by shooting at the rear armour.

Space Marine Bolt Pistol

The Bolt Pistol is not normally shown on the Space Marine model but it is important that you remember that you have it. If you are assaulting, The bolt pistol is a 12″ assault 1 weapon. This allows you a pot shot at the target before you get in to close combat.

Number per Squad

You can have between 5 and 10 Marines per squad. So what is the best number of Marines to have in squad?

The case for a 5 man Tactical Squad

5 is the minimum number of Space Marines you have in a quad. This means that it is the cheapest option. Two 5 man squads fulfil your minimum troop choices. This is a bit more expensive in points than two Space Marine Scout squads, but you will find that tactical squads are much more flexible. Cheap troops squads means that you have more points to spend on HQ or Heavy Support choices to create a specialized (cheesier) army list.

A 5 man Space Marine Tactical Squad with a tooled up Sargent make for an effective assault squad. Add a Razorback to give the squad some extra speed and fire power.

The case for a 6 man Tactical Squad

If you play tournament rules, you get victory points for reducing a squad to below half strength. If you have a five man squad, that is achieved by killing three models. With a six man squad, four Space Marines will have to die to get the points. Other than this all the benefits of a 5 man squad apply.

The case for 7 to 9 man Tactical Squads

Extra Space Marines in the squad adds resilience to the squad. I think that the extra points would be better spent on having two 5 men squads or one 10 man squad.

The case for 10 man Tactical Squads

The 10 man Space Marine Tactical Squad is by far the most flexible squad formation. It not only gives you access to heavy and assault weapons, but you get to use the Combat Squads special rule too.

Combat Squad Tactics

Space Marine Tactical Squads can split up in to ‘tactical squads’. This means that you can split your 10 man Space Marine Tactical squads in to two 5 man units. A common usage for this is to have the heavy weapon and 4 other Space Marines in one unit, and have the Sargent, armed with close combat weapons, a Space Marine armed with an assault weapon, and two other Space Marines in a second unit.

The bonus of splitting the squad like this is that you have two units that now have a definite roles, one as a heavy weapons team, and one as an assault team. The downside of splitting the Tactical Squad like this is that both teams are now quite small. Smaller units, it is easier to kill off.

Tactical Squad Transport Options

Tactics often require that the right troops are in the right location when you need them. Giving your troops transport will mean that you can ferry them around the table quicker and capture those all important objectives.

Rhino

Warhammer 40k Space Marine Rhino troop transporter.

The Space Marine Rhino is the most basic and cheapest of the transport options. At 35 points for a 10 man APC ( armoured personnel carrier ) it is a steal. Usually to keep the points cost down I keep the upgrades down to a minimum too. Usually this means that I only add a plintal mounted storm bolter ( so it has two storm bolters ), and nothing else.

The Rhino is so basic that is comes with a ‘ Repair ‘ special rule. This means that if you do not shoot there is a 1 in 6 chance that it can recover from a immobilized damage. This does not happen often as the Rhinos are usually destroyed before they get a chance to recover, but when it does work, it is very useful!

Razorback

If you have a 5 man squad, the Razorback offers some close support as well as troop transportation. It is not so good if you like to keep to 10 man squads though. However if you have a 5 man squad ( using up points? ) or if you like to split your squads in to 5 man combat squads. then the Razorback could be well worth considering.

Space Marine Drop Pod

Space Marine Drop Pods are making a big come back in the 7th edition of Warhammer 40000. The need to move around the table quickly to claim tactical objectives that change through the game means that being able to start in the right place gives the Space Marines a significant advantage.

Space Marine Land Raider

Tactical Squads can have a Land Raider as a transport option, however this is usually over kill. Keep the Land Raiders for the Terminator assault squads that can make best use of the Assault Vehicle feature of the Land Raider.

Scout Squads

Space Marine Scout Squad with bolters and sniper rifles.

Space Marine Scouts are trainee Tactical Space Marines. As such they are cheaper in points, have less access to weapons, and don’t have such good stats or armour. They do have some good skills though, they light armour means that they can infiltrate and slip through terrain easier.

Space Marine Scouts are usually used in one of two roles, either as light assault troops, or as more heavily armed troops used to hold a position. The role you choose for them will depend on the mission and the terrain. Again, the more you know about the match ahead of time the better.

Light Assault Troops

Armed with close combat weapons (replace bolter with 2nd close combat weapon), Space Marine Scouts make very good assault squads.

Hold the Ground

Using the infiltrate rule, Space Marine Scouts are very good at being placed ahead of the main battle lines to hold a strategic location. This may be a marker or a building with a good line of sight etc.

If you want to have the scouts holding the ground then you want to arm them with heavy weapons, bolters, and/or sniper rifles, depending on the opponent.

Special Rules

Space Marine Scouts have special rules, so you get infiltrate and flanking special rules. These have been covered in the section above.

Crusader Unit

If you are thinking of taking a Black Templars army then you only have the Crusader Unit as a troop choice. However the Crusader Unit is very flexible. The reason for this is that you can mix cheaper (10 point ) scout / Neophyte with squads of full Space Marines ( Initiates ). The main benefit is that you can lace the Neophytes at the front, soaking up wounds, leaving your more expensive troops to like for later in the battle.

Another big bonus is that you can have a heavy weapon +and+ a special weapon in a 5 man squad. That’s a lot of firepower in a small space!

If you want to add Crusader units to your army then just paint standard tactical and scout marines in Black Templar colours.

There are a great number of Space Marine Elite choices that you can pick from. This is not a major problem for an unbound army, but if you want to keep to a battle forged army list you will only have 3 Elite slots available to you. This means that in a battle forged army you will need to be decisive about your plans and which units will best fulfil those objectives.

Space Marine Command Squads

Space Marine Command Squad

Having your hero out on his own presents a great target for your opponent. A better option is to buy a Command Squad for him. These are veteran space marines that have been detailed to be a bodyguard for your expensive HQ characters.

Previously you could only get a Command Squad as an upgrade for an independent character, and once you did this the character ceased to be independent and had to stick with the command squad for the rest of the game. With the 2015 Space Marine Codex the Command Squad has become an Elite unit, which makes way for many more interesting options ( 3 Command Squads in a battle forged army?).

Command squads Space Marines have a number of weapon and special upgrade options, like apothecaries and standard bearers. Have a think about the role you have in mind for your Command Squads, like close combat experts, or as close support for your troops. When you have decided on a role tool up your Command Squad with that role in mind. The advantage of a command squad is that they have access to a number of special weapons. This means that you can configure them for specific roles.

Command Squads can take a Drop Pod, Rhino or Razor back as an additional transport too. Having a troop carrier will make your command squad much more flexible. You could also consider using a Land Raider as a troop transporter too.

Space Marine Honour Guard

Space Marine Honour Guards use to be the preserve of the The Chapter Master. Now they can be found in the Space Marine Elite section.

The Space Marines of the Honour Guard have similar stats as the regular Command Squad and veteran marines. The difference is that they have better weapons, 1 point better leadership and Artificer armour. This makes the veterans tough nuts to crack.

Even though the Honour Guard superficially look like a Command Squad in fancy dress, the Honour Guard does have a different role in the Space Marine army. The difference can best be seen in what the Honour Guard lack that the Command Squads have. These include special character ‘Apothecary’ and the Honour Guards do not have access to special weapons like meltas and flamers. Also the Honour Guard has to have a Chapter Champion where a Champion is optional in the Command Squads.

If you are looking to take a Honour Guard then you will be advised to take some transport. This will allow us to get your mega-expensive unit to the optimum place on the table quicker. Unlike the Command Squads, the Honour Guards have access to Land Raiders as dedicated transport. This will allow then to use the Assault Vehicle special rules of the Land Raider. The can charge up to your target in the Land Raider and then jump out and assault in the same turn.

One of the Honour Guard will be the Chapter Champion. The Chapter Champion has a special rule where they have to attack a character during close combat. However if there are two characters you can pick the which character you wish to assault. My advice would be to pick on the weakest as this should reduce the number of return attacks.

One of the Honour Guard can also have the Chapter Banner. This is recommended for the benefits that it bestows on the Honour Guard unit and other friendly units in the area. This does mean that will benefit you if you have your Honour Guard in the centre of any units that have a lower leadership. With the new 6th & 7th Edition rules and aligned forces, this could be low leadership Imperial Guard units.

Space Marine Terminators Tactics

Space Marine Terminator are designed for close proximity fighting. They first appeared in the Space Hulk games where their thicker armour and assault weapons where a great advantage in the space ship corridors. The Space Marine Terminators still excel in these conditions. They are not fast, you need to load them it to Space Marine Land Raiders if you want to ferry them about. Smaller troop transporters will just not be big enough for the job.

The Space Marine Terminators armour is some of the toughest armour in the game. You should be careful of those rare AP1 and AP2 weapons. These will cause you to fall back on the fairly weak invulnerable saves.

Space Marine Terminator Weapons

Space Marine Terminators are armed with general purpose close quarter fighting weapons, the Storm Bolter and Power fist. Upgrades to heavy weapons is available.

The Stormbolter is a medium ranged assault weapon. This means that you can close in on your opponents and be shooting along the way. You can not run and shoot at the same time, but you can shoot and assault in the same turn. You will need to decide between shooting and running each turn.

The Power Fist is the default Terminator close combat weapon. It (almost) always strikes last at initiative 1, but when it wounds you will instant kill most creatures. This is because the Power Fist doubles the Space Marines strength to S8, enough to instant kill most mortals.

The Sergeant gets a Power Sword instead of a Power Fist. This means that he will strike in the usual initiative order. The Power Sword is AP3 ( 6th edition rules ), so the tougher Power Armour and bigger creatures are good targets. Place him toe to toe with and power weapon character. Terminator is a bit vulnerable to power weapons, and you may have a change to kill the character before they do damage to the squad.

One Space Marine Terminator heavy weapon upgrades is the Heavy Flamer. A Heavy Flamer is a good weapon to choose if you are fighting in close cover like jungle fighting, or City Fight rules.

Heavy Flamers are S5. This means that you will wound other Space Marines on a 3+ and Imperial Guard and Eldar are wounded on a 2+.

The Assault Cannon is a great weapon for the Space Marine Terminators. It can fire four rounds per turn which is good against horde armies, specially with the Space Marines Ballistic skill, and it’s a rendering weapon so it has a chance to crack open tanks and hard targets too. Assault Cannons only have a 24″ range, but considering that Space Marine Terminators work better in built up areas, this is not a problem.

Cyclone Missile Launchers add a bit of long range fire power to the Space Marine Terminators. It’s stats are the same as a regular Marine missile launcher. The Cyclone Missile launcher fires the same Frag and Krak missiles too, so you should be familiar with them. The one difference is that the Cyclone missile launcher can be fired in the same turn as the Space Marine Terminator’s Storm Bolter. This is a bonus against lighter targets.

Where Can I Get Space Marine Terminator Models?

There are a number of options available when it comes to adding Terminator Squads at the moment. The first is the basic Terminator box. This will give you all the bits you need to build a 5 man squad. Alternatively there is the Horus Heresy Warhammer 30k Terminators too. In the WH40k fluff there are plenty examples of older armour still being used in the new age.

Space Marine Terminator Assault Squad Tactics

Space Marine Terminator Assault Squads are more specialised variant of the usual Space Marine Terminator Squad. They give up their shooting ability for more specialised close combat weapons.

Terminator Assault Squads are armed with either Thunder Hammers and Storm Shields, or a pair of Lightning Claws. As the squads description suggests, these are close assault weapons so you will want to get in to combat as soon as possible.

Space Marine Terminator Assault Squad Weapons

Lightning Claws are great at chopping through hordes of smaller creatures. Because you get a pair of Lightning Claws you still get the 2nd weapon attack bonus, and the Terminators strike at their normal initiative order.

Thunder Hammers and Storm Shields are the tools of choice against larger foe. The shields will protect your Terminators from high AP attacks while the Thunder Hammers stun the enemy so they do not strike back next turn.

Space Marine Sternguard Veteran Squad Tactics

The Space Marine Sternguard Veteran Squad is a new addition to the 2008 Space Marine Codex. The Space Marine Sternguard by their name show that they are designed to be rear guard troops. The classic use of rearguards is to protect the army from sneaky attacks from the rear, and to hold strategic ground to allow the rest of the army escape if they need to run. The Space Marine Sternguard are designed to bolster the regular Space Marines.

Sternguard as Heavy Weapon Troops

The Space Marine Sternguard make an excellent addition to a shooty Space Marine army or an assault army that want some support at the rear. Up to two Space Marine Sternguard can upgrade to heavy weapons. This is an expensive alternative to the regular Devastator squads, but provides option if all your heavy support slots have been filled.

Sternguard as Shock Troops

All the Space Marine Sternguard are veterans. This means that they have the extra leadership and attack that veterans get. These veteran skills added to the special ammunition available to them means that you can have 5 to 10 Space Marine Sternguard that can pack a surprising punch in the shooting phase and then can follow it up with a decent close combat attack.

Space Marine Dreadnought Tactics

The Space Marine Dreadnoughts are part man and part vehicle. The are classed as ‘Walkers’ in the Warhammer 40k rules.Being a hybrid of man and machine the Space Marine Dreadnought brings the best of both. It has an armour value so anti-tank weapons are needed to damage it, but it has a weapon skill value so it can fight in close combat. The Dreadnought can have carry heavy weapons too, and like a vehicle in can move and shoot in the same turn. The Dreadnought can also assault in the same turn it moved and fired.

The Space Marine Dreadnought moves in the same way foot troops do so it will move 6″ in the movement phase, and needs to take difficult terrain tests. The Dreadnought is too big to fit into any transport vehicle, this makes it a lot slower at moving around the table. Plan where you are going to need the Dreadnought when you set up. If you are playing on a large table, think about having a drop pod to deep strike the Dreadnought to a strategic location.

Space Marine Venerable Dreadnought

Space Marine Venerable Dreadnoughts are the oldest of the Space Marine Dreadnoughts. In game terms they are very similar. The difference is that the Space Marine Venerable Dreadnought gets an extra point of BS & WS, and the ‘venerable’ special rule. These upgrades cost an extra 60points. Worth it? I’ll let you decide.

The extra BS skill will allow the Space Marine Venerable Dreadnought to hit on 2’s (or 5 times out of 6). This means that all the ranged weapons are better value for the points. The extra WS point will aide any close combat fights against WS4 & WS5 opponents. If you normally fight other Space Marines or Chaos Space Marines you could find this useful. If you normally fight WS3 opponents (Guard & etc), then this upgrade will have no effect. The “Venerable” special rule gives the Space Marine Venerable Dreadnought some extra survivability. The ability to re-roll 5’s & 6’s on the damage table will frustrate your opponent!

Ironclad Dreadnought

A new addition to the Space Marine Dreadnought ‘family’ is the Space Marine Ironclad Dreadnought.

The Space Marine Ironclad Dreadnought has been designed to fight in built up areas. It comes with two close combat weapons by default, with attached special weapons. This is a formidable combination that gives you an extra close combat attack. The down side is if you don’t get in to combat then the Space Marine Ironclad Dreadnought could end up a waste of points.

You can replace the Seismic Hammer with a Chain Sword. The Chain Sword will cut through tank armour much easier with an extra D6 penetration, but causes less damage when you do glance or penetrate. Because of this I recommend the Chain Sword when facing tougher tanks.

If you want some shooty weapons on your Space Marine Ironclad Dreadnought then you can replace the standard close combat arm with hurricane bolters. Hurricane bolters are mid range weapons (same range as a bolter), but can lay down a lot of twin linked bolter fire per turn. This is great against swarm armies (Orks, Tyranids, Guard & etc).

Legion of the Dammed Squad

The Legion of the Damned are not like other Space Marines, they are not part of a known chapter, and can be added to any chapter’s army list. You do not have to attach them as using the attachment rules.

The 2nd difference with the Legion of the Damned is that they always Deep Strike in to the game. What is more is that they get to re-roll the scatter dice if yo wish. This means that yo have a 4 in 6 chance of rolling a ‘ hit ‘ on the scatter dice. What is not clear is if you get to re-roll the scatter distance dice too. If you can, this can be used to improve the Deep Strike accuracy too.

Ok now we know who they are, and how they arrive, the question is ‘ what are they good for? ‘. The answer to this can be found in their spacial rules. The first clue is that their bolters fire cover ignoring bolter shots, the next is that they are slow and purposeful, and the last clue is the 3+ invulnerable saves they get.

So what can you use the Legion of the Damned squads for? Well my suggestion would be as a squad to route out dug in tough to shift units, or as a hit squad armed with melta weapons to take out tanks or monstrous creatures placed behind the front line. The Flaming projectiles are great for camo cloaked snipers that have gone to ground behind Ageas lines. The slow and purposeful rule lets them advance and fire heavy weapons, and the 3+ invulnerable save will keep them alive a bit longer against returned incoming fire and counter assaults.

It you do use the Damned Legionnaires deep behind the enemy lines then you will be best taking a full squad of 10. This will give you an effective force even if you do not have other units to provide support. Just don’t bite off more that you can chew. Aim for smaller targets. This will give you more return from your squads points cost.

Slow and Purposeful

The Legion of the Damned have the ‘ Slow and Purposeful ‘ rule, however in the 6th edition this does not mean that your units are slow, it just means that they cannot run or shoot using Over-watch. What you can do though is move up to 6” during the movement phase and still shoot heavy weapons in the shooting phase, and still assault in the assault phase. Used correctly this means that your Legionnaires are quite fast moving heavy weapons teams. Option Weapon Upgrades

So what is the best spacial weapon to take? Again this will depend on your opponent. The usual choice will be either the Flamer, for Larger numbers of smaller troops tucked in to cover, or the Meltagun, for taking out tanks and monstrous creatures.

In a similar way to the the heavy weapon choices are usually the Heavy flamer or the Mult-melta. Sometimes the Missile launcher is an option if you are expecting a lot or enemy air support, however you will probably find that Devastator Squads or other heavy support options are a better bet for this.

The last weapon upgrade option is the Veteran Sargent. For these a Combi-weapon and melee weapon combination is popular.

Flaming Projectiles

Ok, now we know that you can move with some pace around the battle field, you may want to review the Flaming Projectiles special rule again. To summarise all ranged attacks ignore cover. This is usually seen as bolter shots, it covers all shooting weapons ( so not flamers, which get this rule any way, or close combat weapons that do not need this rule). Use this rule correctly and it will really rattle your enemy!

Causes Fear

The Legion of the Damned causes fear. This is a special rule that can be useful in close combat by reducing the the opponent initiative to 1 if they loose a leadership test. However I find that this is not as useful as it sounds. This is because in Warhammer 40k the leadership of most units tends to be quite high, and those that have a lower leadership score usually have a way of avoiding leadership tests, for example Tyranid Gaunts that are fearless within Hive Mind influence, or Orks that can mob up to improve their leadership, and any units that are left to the mercies of fear usually have a lower initiative score than the Legionnaires anyway, so this rule has little or no effect.

Where Can I Get Legion Of The Dammed Models?

The best option for getting Legion of the Dammed models is the Games Workshop website. Another option is that Element Games have 3rd party Space Marine like heads and backpacks. These can be used to create exotic Legion of the Dammed style Space Marines.

If you are creating a standard ‘Battle Forged’ army you will need a HQ squad. Even if you a creating an unordered army list then you will find that adding a HQ choice or two will add extra skills to your army that you will find very useful.

In this section we will look at the Head Quarter choices available to the Space Marine army.

It is highly recommended to have at least one Space Marine HQ unit for each game you play. There are very occasional times where you may come across low point scenarios where you do not need a HQ, but for the most part you can guarantee that you need one. As you will be needing a HQ unit for virtually every, it is highly recommended that you get to know the few HQ choices that you have available in detail.

As usual you will need the Space marine Codex and a copy of the core rules.

Special Characters

The Space Marine Codex includes a selection of named characters. These are usually associated with specific chapters. If a Character has a ‘Chapter Tactics’ special rule then he really can only be included in a force with units from that chapter, or successor chapters. For really large games you can field forces from different armies. This does give you the chance to field forces from different Space Marine Chapters at the same time too.

Special Characters can be quite dominating in a game. It is polite to agree to use named characters before including one in your army list. This is usually done when you are discussing how many points to play. It could be a good idea to have two army rosters to hand, one with Special Characters, and one without. This will give you the flexibility of which army list to use at short notice.

Marneus Calgar Tactics

Marneus Calgar is the chapter master of the Ultramarine Space Marines. He is also the most expensive character in the Space Marine Codex. This is because he has a lot of extra special rules. Make sure you know all his extra rules so you get the full value from him. Because the points cost of Marneus Calgar is so high you will want to be careful about using him in smaller games. Remember to make sure that you have enough points to create a rounded army.

Marneus Calgar is a good ‘well rounded’ character. He has a good shooting weapon and a high ballistic skill to make use of it, and can call an orbital strike once in the game. Marneus Calgar also is useful in close combat. he has an extra attack over the normal chapter master and his two power fists give him an extra attack. Remember that the power fists will not make use of his high initiative.

Strength and Weapons

Marneus Calgar is the chapter master of the Ultramarines. This means that he gets the pick of the Ultramarine’s wargear. What he chose was the “Gauntlets of Ultramar”. These are a pair of Power Fists that use to strike at I5 but do not have the ‘Unwieldy’ special rule so they strike at Marneus’ I5 and not I1. The Gauntlets also have storm bolter like ranged weapons built in. These have the same stats as a storm bolter except that they are AP2.

Shooting vs Marine:

This means that it would take 20+ rounds of shooting basic Space Marines for you to get your point value back. Which again just shows that Marneus is designed to take on bigger targets!

Armour and Special Rules

By default Marneus Calgar comes with Artificer Armour Power Armour. This is because the older models of Marneus came this way, and as I have a model like this I am glad that Games Workshop still write rules for older models even when they don’t have to. It means that collectors are more confident that they can purchase models with the confidence that they will be useful for years to come.

Newer versions of Marneus Calgar come with Terminator Armour, this Venerable armour gives all the Terminator Armour benefits plus Marneus can make Sweeping Advances and includes a teleport homer so in further rounds Terminators can drop in on Calgar’s position without fear of scattering.

As I mentioned above Marneus has a number of special rules that you would be advised get to know ( or write on a small card ) when you use him.

God of War and Warlord Traits

Marneus Calgar has to select his Warlord traits from the Space Marine Warlord traits. However you can just pick the trait you want. There’s no need to roll. This is great because you can decide which trait you want when you are building your army list, and adapt your strategy to match.

Chapter Tactics – Ultramarines

Marneus Calgar can evoke one extra Combat Doctrine (Warrgh!) per game if he is your Warlord (and who would take him and not have him as your Warlord?). This is great as it gives your Ultramarines an extra bonus just as you need it! The trick is remembering you have this to call on in the thick of the battle.

Eternal Warrior

This is the universal special rule that makes a character immune to instant death. This means that if Marneus is hit by S8, S9, or S10 weapon, then he only takes one wound, instead of dieing instantly like other characters would. Some weapons have a ‘ Cause instant death ‘ clause too. This special rule means that he only takes one wound at a time from these weapons too.

Orbital Bombardment

Captain Cato Sicarius

Captain Sicarius is the Ultramarine character in charge of the Ultramarine 2nd company, but please remember that you can include him in other Ultramarine succession army lists by just saying that this model is like Captain Sicarius ( & pay the points ).

Captain Sicarius is a good 2nd choice as a leader for your Ultramarine army. He is notably cheaper in points than Marneus Calgar, and this is because he does not have as many special rules or equipment that Marneus does.

Strength and Weapons

Captain Sicarius gets a basic plasma pistol and a Chapter Relic sword. From this you can see that Sicarius is meant to be in the thick of the close assaults. The sword ‘Talassarian Tempest Blade’ allows Sicarius to swap all his usual attacks for a single Coup de Grace attack. You may want to do this if you are in a challenge against a tougher, multi-wound opponent. Using this attack is a risk as you may miss. However it is attacks like this that are the memorable part of the larger game!

Toughness and Special Rules

Captain Sicarius has a suit of armour that is a chapter relic. Also even though is does not mention it specifically, we can see from the stats line that the armour is 2+ save artificer armour. The ‘ Mantle of the Suzerian’ also gives him a Feel No Pain extra save if the 2+ armour does not save him. Like most named characters Captain Sicarius also gets an Iron Halo. This gives him a 4+ invulnerable save against anti-tank and power weapons. Remember that this save is backed up with the Feel No Pain (5+) save too.

Warlord Trait

If you take Captain Sicarius for your Warlord then he automatically gets the ‘Rites of War’ trait. If Captain Sicarius is your Warlord then this trait gives all your Space Marines in the same Ld10 as long as Captain Sicarius is alive. This is a massive advantage because it also means that if you have Space Marines from other chapters they are covered too! Also as you do not need to roll for this trait you know what you will be getting as soon as you put your army roster together.

Chief Librarian Tigurius

Chief Librarian Tigurius is the highest ranking Librarian of the Ultramarine’s army. He is L3 psyker so with the improvements to the 6th & 7th edition of the Warhammer 40k Rulebook this is a very useful ability.

You can use Tigurius as your general, but remember that as he is a Librarian Tigurius is not as skilled at close combat as other name captains. As you will want Tigurius to throw as many psychic bolts at your enemy as possible, the best location for him will be 12″ to 24″ from the enemy, but not in close combat. This means that you may want to team him up with a close support fire squad. You may want this squad armed with mental or flamer weapons.

Strength and Weapons

Tigurius stats line is ok, but not amazing. I would suggest that you will want to make sure that Tigurius has some backup, like a command squad if he is likely to get into close combat.

As for weapons Librarian Tigurius gets a useful, Master Crafted force weapon. This weapon also has the concussive and Soul Blaze special rule making it a big threat to multi-wound opponents. Remember that this weapon is a force weapon, so it will take a psychic point, and a psychic test to get it to work.

Tigurius does get a bolt pistol too. This is useful as a 2nd weapon to give you an extra attack in close combat, or as a backup weapon as you can fire off some psychic force in the psychic phase and still shoot in the shooting phase.

Armour and Special Rules

Chief Librarian Tigurius only gets basic 3+ Power Armour with no Invulnerable saves, and no options to upgrade to better armour. This means that you will need to attach him to a squad, either a Command Squad, or a basic tactical squad, to soak up some incoming fire that is sure to come his way.

As Tigurius is a Librarian, he is automatically a Psyker. I have add notes about this a the start of this article. Tigurius also gets a special psychic hood. This allows Tigurius to attempt to nullify and psychic attacks in his area. Also his hood is a chapter relic that allows him to re-roll psychic tests, and this means that you are virtually guaranteed to pass all the psychic tests he will take.

Tigurius also gets a ‘ Master of Prescience’ special rule. This allows your units in this detachment to re-roll Reserve rolls. This in turn means that you have much more control over when your reserves arrive. So if you have a number of reserve units, you will want Tigurius in play from the first turn. This special rule also allows Tigurius to re-roll when generating psychic powers. This means that you are much more likely to get powers that you want.

How do I get a Tigurius Model?

Games Workshop does not make a specific Tigurius model at this time. The best option is to get the Space Marine Heroes box and do a little modelling on the Librarian model.

Chaplain Cassius Tactics

Chaplain Cassius is the chief Chaplain of the Ultramarines. He has a deep hatred of Tyranids. Because of this hatred Chaplain Cassius has the Preferred Enemy (Tyranids) special rule. This makes Cassius a natural choice for a HQ unit if you know that you will be facing a Tyranid Army Apart from the couple of additional special rules and Chaplain Cassius’s unique weapon, the main difference between Cassius and a regular Chaplain is that Cassius is T6. Add this to his 4+ invulnerable save (sometimes written as 4++), then you see that Cassius is a very tough cookie. For example lasguns and bolters will need 6’s to wound and nothing can cause instant death. Even a melta gun at close range only has a 50% chance of wounding, and that is a weapon that is designed to take out the toughest of tanks.

Chaplain Cassius’s weapons and toughness

Chaplain Cassius has the standard Crozius Arcanum as his close combat weapon. This is a standard power maul. This means that close combat attacks work out at S6 AP4. This is great for close combat with many of the Tyranid Monstrous creatures as they tend to be T6 and the smaller creatures tend to be AP5 so they will not get a save from this weapon.

Chaplain Cassius has a master crafted combi-bolter too. The Master Crafted rule means that he gets to re-roll one miss each turn. As Cassius has a BS4 score this means that the first shot hits 28 in 36 times, or 7 in 9 times (77.78%). This is great as this bolter shoots poison (2+) rounds, so you can expect to take a wound off a Monstrous Tyranid from 24″ each round.

Ultramarine’s Chapter Tactics

Chaplain Cassius gets the Ultramarine’s Chapter Tactics. This means that his shooting skills improve further as he can re-roll 1’s to hit, and re-roll snap shots, including those at flying creatures. If If you are going after a flying creature then you will want to fire at it from Cassius’s squad first as you have a good chance of grounding the creature making it an easier target for other units.

While we are on Chapter Tactics remember that all Ultramarine’s can re-roll assault charge range. This means that you can be a bit more bold when you are picking a fight.

Chaplain Cassius and Close Combat

Space Marine Chaplains are at their best in close combat. Chaplain Cassius is no exception. He does not have a 2nd close combat weapon like other Space Marine Chaplains so he does not get the extra attack, but this is not a major loss.

You are advised to team him up with a close combat squad. Either a tactical squad, Veteran Squad with close combat weapons or a Command Squad, depending on how many points you have to spend.

Captain Darnath Lysander

Imperial Fist 1st Company Captain is a natural HQ choice if you are creating an Imperial Fist army list.

Strength and Weapons

Toughness and Special Rules

Captain Lysander comes with Terminator Armour, a Storm Shield and an Iron Halo. With all this you wander if he needs the Eternal Warrior special rule, but it’s there if you need it!

Where can I get a Captain Lysander Model?

At the moment you can only get the Captain Lysander model from the Games Workshop website here. However you can create your own Captain Lysander by modelling a Terminator Captain with a Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield. The best option is to get the terminator command squad box and use your modelling skills on the Terminator Captain included. You get 5 other Terminators in the box to make a Terminator Command Squad too!

Shadow Captain Kayvaan Shrike

Captain Shrike is the Company Captain of the Raven Guard 3rd Company. His main difference from the other named characters is that he comes with a Jump Pack and a pair of Chapter Relic Power Claws.

Forgefather Vulkan He’stan

Kor’sarro Khan

The White Scare chapter is based on the Mongle tribes that dominated the Russian plains. Space Marine bikes have replaced horses, but speed over the open plain still holds the key to the key to this chapters use.

Space Marine Captain & Chapter Master Tactics

If you do not want a named character ( or the mission rules exclude named characters), then including a Space Marine Captain or chapter Master to lead your army is a good idea. When creating a battle forged army list a Captain or Chapter Master is the first thing I add to the roster.

The Chapter Master is the most senior and most skilful Space Marine of the whole chapter. Note that even though the Space Marine Codex does not limit you to one Space Marine Chapter Master, if you want to keep faithful to the story line then you should not have more than one Chapter Master one the table per Chapter. This could be bent with a bit of creative storytelling ( a chapter master thrown back in time due to a ripple in warp travel or similar, like how often does Dr Who meet himself?).

A Captain is usually the head of a Space Marine Company. Captains now have very similar stats and special rules to the Chapter Masters, but cost 40 points less.

Strength and Weapons

As the Captains / Chapter Master are the most senior of the Space Marine Chapter, they have access to all the armoury weapons. This is with the exception of any heavy weapons. This means that you can configure the Captain / Chapter Master for a number of close combat or medium ranged fire support roles.

The most popular configuration is to have a close combat weapon and a medium ranged shooting weapon. This will give you the most flexibility during the game. One one weapon to avoid is the Power fist. The Power fist always hits at Initiative 1. This means that you can not use the Captain’s / Chapter Master’s high Initiative score.

As mentioned already the Captains / Chapter Master do not have a heavy weapon option, however a Chapter Master (and not a Captain) does get a special rule ‘ Orbital Bombardment’. This is a one shot weapon can hit any target in line of sight with a S10 small template. As this can only called if the Chapter Master does not move during the movement phase, it may be best to use this option near the start of the game when the Chapter Master has a good view of the table.

Toughness and Special Rules

The Captains and Chapter Masters come with an iron halo as standard. This means that he get a 4+ invulnerable save as well as any armour save his armour may provide. This is usually 3+ that the Power Armour provides, but upgrading to Artificer armour or Terminator armour is usual and recommend. Remember that the Space Marine Chapter Master can also be given a Space Marine bike too. This will give the Chapter Master extra toughness too.

Space Marine Librarian Tactics

Space Marine Librarian Psyker in Terminator Armour.

The Space Marine Librarian is the psychic of the Space Marine army. This is helps the Space Marines in two ways. First the Librarian can use his power to strike at the enemy. The second way is that the Librarian can use his skills to nullify the enemies powers.

The psychic powers section of the Warhammer 40k game have been extended in the 6th & 7th Editions of the rules. This means that the Librarian has a big a bigger role these days than he has since the 2nd edition of the Warhammer 40k rules.

Librarians are Level 1 Psykers by default. It is often worth upgrading them to a L2 Psyker. The Space Marine Librarian can choose from the 6 main disciplines. My suggestion would be to get to know one discipline well before exploring the other ones. It is far better to be an expert on a few skills than to be unsure of a larger number of skills!

Space Marine Chaplain Tactics

The Space Marine Chaplain is the defender of the faith. They often are chosen as a second HQ choice, but they can lead the army.

Chaplains are good close combat characters. This does not mean that they can take on a whole army on their own, but it does mean that they can add extra punch to and assault unit.

If you are going to add your Chaplain to an assault unit it does make sense to give him similar transport to the unit he is joining. You will see that the picture insert here shows a Chaplain on a bike. This is because my Chaplain supports my bike unit. This confirmation would be not use if I wanted support to my jump pack troops. This in turn means that planning ahead is very important. So if you have a game plan before you turn up to a battle, this is one area where that forward planning will pay dividends!

Techmarine

Techmarines can be useful if you have a tank heavy army. They are not bad in a close combat fight either.

During the shooting phase the Techmarine can attempt to do some repairs on a tank that they are touching. This means that the best place for your Techmarine in the middle of your tanks and APC’s ( Armoured Personnel Carriers ).

Servitors

Servitors come in two flavours, ones with close combat weapons that can help the Techmarine fix tanks, and those that have heavy weapons attached that give the Techmarine squad some long ranges punch.

The Chaos Space Marine Army are warped and twisted versions of the Imperial Space Marines. Seduced by favours and powers that the Chaos powers promise. In this section we will have a look at the Chaos Marine Army and the Chaos tactics.

To make sense of these notes or to play a Chaos Space Marine you will need a copy of the main Warhammer 40k rules and a copy of the Chaos Space Marine Codex.

The new 2012 Codex: Chaos Space Marines has been released, and these pages have been updated to reflect the new codes and the 7th Edition of the Warhammer 40000 Rule Book.

General Chaos Space Marine Tactics

The Chaos Space Marine has a number of options and special rules. With an army this complex it is a good idea to get some over all tactics.

Chaos Space Marines and the 7th Edition

The 7th edition of the Warhammer 40k rules have favoured the Chaos Space Marines. The Maelstrom of War missions are forcing the gun line armies to come out from behind their bunkers and give close combat armies like the Chaos Space Marines a chance. Another strong area that the Chaos Marines can take advantage of is the use of psychic powers.

Marks of Chaos

Across many of the Chaos Space Marine units you will see that you can take different Mark of Chaos upgrades. These upgrades are not prices of equipment, but skills bestowed from the Chaos god that the Chaos Space Marines follow. In many cases you do not have to take a Mark of Chaos. They are totally optional. However they do not come free. Each mark will have a points cost associated with it, and you can only have a maximum of one mark per unit. If you are new to Warhammer 40k then I would suggest that you leave the Mark of Chaos skills for now and revisit them after you have played a few games.

If you are looking to use these upgrades in your army list make sure that you know what benefits the Mark of Chaos give your units and choose a Mark that fits in with your over all game tactics.

A suggestion that may help here is to write out the units details on a 4×3 index card, using one card per unit, so that you can refer to the units stats and skills quickly during the game. This will mean that you will be more likely to remember any special rules the units have and this in turn will mean that you will not be waiting points on upgrades that you do not use.

One thing that you do need to be aware of is that characters with one mark of chaos can not join a unit with a different mark. So for example a Tzeench Chaos Lord can not join a unit of Khorne Berserks. This is important because it limits the ability of a character to hide it a unit of troops if the units have the ‘wrong mark of chaos’.

Get up close and personal

There is no doubt about it. The Chaos Space Marines are configured to be a close combat army. What you will be looking to do is get in to close combat as quickly as possible. However remember that some of the armies out there are even better at close combat than you are, so having a plan that can adapt will be the best option.

No Command Squads

One difference between the Chaos HQ choices and the Imperial Space Marine HQ choices is that the Chaos HQ units do not get command squads and transport options. Banner bearers are replaced by personal banners that the Chaos HQ can take. The apothecary is missing though, so I hope you are not needing first aid!

Chaos Marine Unit Specific Tactics

In the following sections you can find tactics for specific Chaos Marine units.

The Tau are the new army in the galaxy. Bristling with high tech weaponry the Tau are fast and hard hitting.

To use these pages you will need the new 2013 Tau Codex and the Main Warhammer 40k rulebook. If you do not have these yourself, you will need regular access to them.

General Tau Tactics

There are some tactics that are useful for several different units or need to be considered for the whole army.

Good In Low Point Games

Became the basic Tau weapon is so good, you do not need as much heavy support in low point games ( under 1000 points ). This has been highlighted in the latest Kill Team box set where Tau are pitted against Space Marines.

Use your Drones

The Tau drones are a very useful addition to a unit. You will find that most units can have additional drones attached. In the 2013 Tau Codex the range of drones available have been expanded. Have a look at each type and play with the combinations to find a mix that works for you.

The Tau Gun Line

The Tau troops have a great standard ranged weapon, but they are very weak when it comes to close combat. For this reason the best tactic is usually to hold back and gun down the enemy as they approach.

For an effective gun line you will want to set up where you have a good line of sight to where the enemy may come from, and hopefully a nice open ‘ Kill Zone ‘ between the enemy and yourself.

Arrange the units so that they can give each other supporting fire. Wiping out whole units at a time will mean that there will be fewer attacking units in the long run. This means that you will want to focus your fire on key enemy units with several of your units in the same round.

If the enemy have a number of template ranges weapons be careful to hide behind cover if you can, and not to bunch up too tightly.

Supporting Fire

Supporting Fire is a new rule that applies to most of the Tau army and allows units to offer supporting overwatch fire to other units in 6″. As the many Tau units can take Counterfire Defence System upgrades ( Tau Codex P68 ) that allow them to overwatch using BS5, this can offer a devastating amout of fire upon charging
units.

Markerlights

Another example of Tau technology is the markerlight system. These are fired in the same way as regular shooting weapons, but they do not cause damage themselves. Instead they allow other models with bigger weapons to hit more effectively, for example increasing the shooters BS, or adding ‘ ignore cover ‘ for that turn to weapons that
would otherwise allow a cover save.

Started adding framework for Warhammer Fantasy Dwarf tactics. The Warhammer Fantasy Dwarfs are slow but tough and backed up by loads of fire power. Can the Dwarfs take on the faster armies in the Warhammer game?

More details have been added to the Imperial Guard Fast Attack tactics page. The Imperial Guard are not known for being a speedy army, however with the introduction of tactical objectives, even the Imperial Guard need to break cover and claim those victory points!